Battle of Pluto
The Battle of Pluto was an engagement fought at the planet of Pluto between the forces of the Human Domain and those of the pirates of the region. Pluto's pure methane deposits, when refined, could act as a critical fuel source for the pirates, since at this time the most prominent starship power plant was the Methane Fuel Cell. In an effort to deny the Rim Raiders of these resources, the Task Force from Earth brought battle to the planet. Events Landfall The pirates had secured a methane extraction station on Pluto and had thought to protect it, with a few hundred soldiers and some vehicles on hand to defend the station. After scans revealed the position of the station, two troop carriers dropped 4 Corsair heavy battle tanks each, and 3 others brought 600 infantry soldiers in Crusader infantry fighting vehicles to the scene. Especially difficult was the feat of dropping heavy combat vehicles to the planet from space, something the humans had never done before, and was made more difficult by Pluto's lack of an atmosphere. Each tank and vehicle was loaded with small rockets to slow its descent, and once safely on the ground, often sustained heavy damage that needed to be repaired by the soldiers, such as suspension malfunctions. Once their vehicles operational, the task force soldiers seized a ridge overlooking the mining station about two kilometers away, and opened fire. Battle at the Ridge The ridge proved a key factor in the battle. Corsair tanks could fire from higher ground overlooking their opponent - this meant that even near-misses would prove effective and it also made the generally thinner top armour of the opposing tanks, the MJ-1, exposed. The two sides exchanged cannon volleys and barrages. In the exchange, a single Task Force corsair was outright destroyed and another was heavily damaged, but in the process they managed to destroy three of the pirate vehicles before they withdrew. One of the difficulties of this battle was the ice terrain of Pluto which was causing unexpected problems with movement due to its slippery-ness. Impacts by heavy weapons would also cause the ice to sublime, or convert directly from solid to gas, and thus the battlefield was blanketed in a haze of vapor. This obscured vision and made it difficult to aim precisely, and tank commanders had to rely on previous positions of enemy forces - wasting dozens of expensive shells. As the tanks fought it out at the ridge, infantry forces advanced towards the mining station by their vehicles, finding it equally difficult to maneuver at any great speed. Within about half a kilometer from the station, the guards opened fire with anti-tank guided missiles and self-propelled grenades, but found that these weapons were near useless on an environment like Pluto. Sometimes, rockets launched from infantry weapons had enough Delta-V to escape Pluto's tiny gravity sphere, jettisoning off into space. The flight control systems on these missiles, calibrated to an Earth-like environment, found it extremely difficult to move in a vacuum, meaning they might as well have been dumbfires. Assault on the Mining station As Task Force infantry and vehicles drew closer, small arms fire erupted from bunkers surrounding the station, and HEAT rockets, which fired straight forward, found great success in a series of ambushes. The soldiers stormed the bunkers, their missed laser beams would also sublime the ice here, and obscured the battlefield. As this was happening the infantry fighting vehicles attempted to retaliate, returning fire with small-arms and support weapons, and their 20mm machine guns. As the pirates got used to the conditions of Pluto and their effects on missiles, each missile became more and more of a threat, and after a few destroyed vehicles they withdrew out of range and turned to assisting the infantry with storming the bunkers. Once the bunkers were seized or neutralized, another attempt was made in an assault on the mining station. Task Force tanks fired a series of rounds at the ground in front of the station, removing the attack from sight of the enemy, and using this to their advantage the Task Force closed in. Once safely in the blanket of evaporating ice, infantry climbed out from their transports and fought for the station, room-to-room. Once the combat was this close and personal, the pirates were quick to give up. The ones who remained alive were arrested and stowed away. The station's valuable methane stockpiles were looted and used to fill the Task Force's own ships. Legacy The Battle of Pluto is a subject of study for historians, particularly human ones, due to the battle's trial-by-fire of many new technologies. Tanks and other ground vehicles with life support systems, combat space suits, and laser rifles, among other smaller things. The battle is also significant for being the very first ground engagement the humans fought outside of Earth, and how commanders would come to realize that on Pluto, as on Earth, the rules and art behind warfare still apply the same way. In a lighter impact, the Battle of Pluto pretty much decided the Kuiper War. Although it was not the only major source of methane for the pirates, it was the biggest, and arguably the easiest to defend. Had the pirates been more prepared, their defense would've been much more successful. Some argue that the biggest mistake was building the mining station underneath a ridge and not thinking to establish some sort of bunker or defense system on or around said ridge. Category:Battles Category:Ground battles